Gaining control of your eating

Have you ever seen the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic? Good movie! This is kind of like that except it's confessions of an food addict.  Before I gave my life to the Lord I tried to fill the emptiness inside me with food. I loved food. I loved the tastes and textures. I loved the little feeling of happiness it would bring.  Of course that feeling would eventually go away so I had to eat again to get that feeling back.  Thus begins the pattern of more eating and alot of eating. 

It's embarassing to admit but here was a typical Saturday meal plan for me: on Saturday morning's I'd sleep in and then make my way to What-a-burger where I'd get 2 taquitos with eggs cheese and potatoes with salsa and a large coke (which is 44 ounces). For a late lunch I'd probably go get a double cheeseburger with french fries and a sprite from McDonalds - the meal supersized of course.  Then for dinner I'd go get my most favorite meal of all. I'd go to Taco Bueno and get 2 chicken quesadillas with two sides of queso and salsa and a large tea. I love cheese - the way it melts and gets gooey. Don't get me started on pizza - when they burn the cheese a little so it's crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle. But I digress.  What is that calorie total?

What-a- burger taquitos with eggs cheese and potatoes - 420 calories each (840 total)
44 ounces of coca-cola - 528 calories
Salsa -15 calories each (60 calories total)
McDonald's double cheeseburger - 421 calories
McDonald's supersized fries - 570 calories
McDonld's suprsized soda - 310 calories
Taco Bueno Chicken Quesadilaa - 761 calories each (total 1522)
Taco Bueno queso - 279 each (558 total)
Salsa - 15 calories each (60 calories total)
Taco Bueno large tea - surprisingly zero - I drink unsweet tea.

So grand total number of caloric intake on a typical Saturday? 4,029.  In case you were unaware - one pound of fat weighs 3,500. I was burning the bare minimum of calories - because I usually just vegged out in front of the tv.  Did a little laundry. Got out to get the food but that was about it.  It is little wonder I weighed as much as I did and continued to gain.

Now to complicate things further, I'm an emotional eater. What do I do when I'm bored, upset, frustrated, depressed? I turn to food. That gooey cheese makes things better. Momentarily. But after I eat that little piece of happy I then feel guilty and ashamed. Now I think of all the hard work I put into my body to make it healthier and I get overwhelmed with the lie of guilt and shame.  Is that cookie going to make me gain all my weight back? No. But when I don't keep my head and go back for the second cookie plus the piece of cake that I don't really want and wasn't that good but eat it anyway, my tummy gets upset.  And I might gain one or two pounds. Which is going backwards and I am firmly against that. 

People have asked me how I've lost the weight - it's simple. Diet and excercise. I hate the word diet - I go on a diet and ALL I can think about is food. I think I gain weight on diets.  So I changed eating habits.

First tip: Eat breakfast. People say "oh, I don't eat breakfast, I just can't." It doesn't have to be a huge meal. It can be an apple and a cup of coffee. In fact, I have coffee with my breakfast - caffeine is an appetite supressent. But you know why they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day? It kick-starts your metabolism so you can start burning calories.

Second tip: Eat often. Six small meals a day - breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and evening snack. It keeps your metabolism stable and up. It also prevents you from getting overly hungry. If I get hungry, I pretty much say forget this and over eat. Not only that, I go for the comfort foods I love. Which brings me back to square one of the guilt and shame cycle. It's best to avoid that.

Third tip: Don't go for the fad diets that tell you to not eat carbs and only eat protein.  Your body needs a little bit of fat to process vitamins. It needs carbohydrates....for whatever carbohydrates do.  I am a reader. So when I started working out I read about nutrition. I honestly can't remember what does what to which part of you. But I do remember that your body burns carbs first.  Carbs are ok to eat. The second thing it burns is fat. So a little fat is ok too.  A good ratio - 60% carbs, 20% fat, 20% protein.  Eventually you can lessen the fat and increase the protein. I usually try and keep it 10-15% fat and increase protein by 5-10%.

Fourth tip: Make food boring. I eat the same thing over and over again. My hope is that I will get used to it. The problem with that theory is when I do eat something with flavor, I go back into the old mode of this is good, must have more!  So this tip is still a work in progress.

Fifth tip: Find healthy alternatives. Be careful of the fat free items - sometimes they load up on sugar to help with the taste. That being said - my favorite snack is fat free cottage cheese with some kind of fruit.  Pineapple, strawberries and peaches are my favorite.  Fresh is the best, but if you have to get canned then go for the kind that are in 100% juice. NEVER the heavy syrup.  Also, I eat meal replacements sometimes. They are simple and easy - just open the bar and eat. Or put a scoop of powder in milk and drink.

I actually found some protein bars that taste like desserts. Today I was walking out of the gym and grabbed a white chocolate chip protein bar and a peanut butter candy cookie protein bar. They are about the same calorie count as a regular cookie. Actually about 60 calories more. But they have the same amount of fat and 12 grams of protein instead of the standard 2 grams. So they are more filling.  And I feel less guilty about eating them.  I also grabbed a brownie with Reese's peanut butter chips. That one was a little sweet for me, but there is just something about chocolate and peanut butter together. I liked it. I think it'll go in the once in a while as a treat category.

Don't feel like giving up your fast food? That's ok - stop supersizing it. Slowly cut back. Go from every day to 3 days a week. Then down to 1 day - make it on a Friday as an end of the week treat. Same with your daily sodas - cut back slowly.  Try a fruit as a snack instead of the vending machine.

Do you ever stop being an emotional eater? No. My first thought after I get upset is to go grab some chocolate or a quesadilla from Taco Bueno. But the fight against giving in gets a little bit easier as time goes by. Since I feel so guilty afterwards it makes it easier. That and the fact that I don't want to go back to old habits. I have worked hard and fought hard to get where I am today. And I still have a long way to go. But think of it this way - if I can do it, so can you!